I've been watching BBC ALBA tonight (mainly to see if they show highlights of the football today)
But one thing I was surprised at. The channel is supposed to be for the Gaelic speaking community.. so why is it when Gaelic is being spoken there are English subtitles. but when they have parts of the programs spoke in English there are no subtitles...

Surely that is the wrong way around ?

Never saw any highlights yet.

Oops.. Just noticed this is in the wrong section.. feel free to move it to general nonsense.

Surely it's because Gaelic speakers are also extremely likely to speak English.

Who was the anchor for the Thistle game, and who were the pundits etc? I can't imagine they're being many Gaelic sports presenters, or that there's many ex pro's who speak Gaelic.

There weren't any. There were a pair of co-commentators but no studio team so far as I know. I missed the start and turned off at the full time whistle but at half time they showed an interview with Tommy Docherty filmed in the Hampden museum (in English) rather than having any discussion about the game.

I'd have pitied any pundits trying to carry a 15 minute conversation on that dross.

I assume they were both speaking in Gaelic?

Yes.

It was a woman who presented (from Firhill) but I can't recall her name.

The commentators were Derek MacAoidh and Allig O'Henley and I think it was the latter who acted as "studio" pundit as well, by hotfooting it down to beside the presenter at full time.

Also of note is that they used the temporary camera position in front of the main stand normally used for Rugby so that they weren't pointing at an empty stand.

Given the small percentage of people in Scotland who actually understand Gaelic and given that a fair percentage of them are not all that interested in football I think that broadcasting a football match in a language which a huge majority of the people who tuned into it cannot understand is a stupid indulgence to appease a minority of the population. Could they not just broadcast things like this in English? Or would the game lose something of it's quality for the Gaelic speakers/

I think it's the fact that Gaelic speakers have been campaigning for their own channel for a long time. To broadcast the game completely in English on that Gaelic channel they had finally got, would be rather unfair in my mind.

No, the problem is no English language broadcasters are willing to televise these matches. The Gaelic channel was looking for some kind of live sport and thus picked up on stuff English language stations werent doing. To then broadcast the match in English would defeat the whole point. You should be grateful enough for any kind of live coverage to be honest.

Indeed I should. And I will touch my forelock and doff my cap in gratitude the next time I should be so fortunate as to see, live, a whole game between two teams below the SPL on any channel. Is it not the case though that they are also broadcasting the highlights of the SPL which are already covered.

TBH I have always felt that the amount spent on this channel to appease around 6% of the population is not good use of taxpayer's money.

Less than that, if Gaelic is spoken by 50,000 people that's about 1% of the Scottish population.

I seriously doubt there are 50,000

Why don't bbc alba give a list of the terms used in gaelic? freekick, offside, biased referee etc

that way, fans learn some gaelic and you have a scoobie what dotaman donnie in the commentary box is saying

Gaelic channel chooses Glasgow game over Highland one. Good old BBC. Plus ca change.

I imagine that there are more Gaelic speakers within a 3 mile radius of Firhill than anywhere else in Scotland.

The north-west of Glasgow is hoaching with folk from the Highlands and Islands. There was (and possibly still is) a Gaelic speaking school around half a mile from Firhill.

does anyone know what channel it is on on Virgintv

It's not on Virgin.

there are, latest figures show just under 65,000 who can understand the language with just over 52,000 who are like myself and are fully fluent in reading, writing and speaking.



this is a good idea and i will suggest it as i have strong links with the new channel.

as for the part about knowing what they are saying, subtitles do/will be running in english for the non gaelic community.

Glasgow's the only place in the country where you can take gaelic fro primary school right through to high school. There are gaelic schools in inverness, stornoway, and aberdeen at least. There are plenty of people that speak it - just because you dont know any doesnt mean its a pointless exercise!

I'm pleased that there's a gaelic tv channel, and that its showing games from the lower leagues. My gaelic's got rusty since school, so its good to get it back in there. The english subtitles are a distraction though!

im not sure of your age but i think since your days in primary school it has changed somewhat. gaelic education in the last 20 years has come on leaps and bounds. apart from the places you mentioned you can also study gaelic from nursery age to high school leaving age in Dingwall, Alness, Portree, Ullapool, to name but a few.

i agree with you in that the coverage of lower league football is fantastic. people were sceptical about the gaelic channel but if it is the only place on tv to catch coverage of these games then people of all languages will tune in despite the commentary being in gaelic.

What exactly has it covered so far? I am only aware of the game yesterday. This is a serious question, not a criticism because I would watch lower league games even if it wasn't in English if I knew when they were on.

That was the first live game. Although the do show a delayed live game on Saturday evenings from that days SPL.

I presume that what you actually mean is that the principle that they are prepared to show lower league football is fantastic? In which case I'd agree as far as it goes.

However, so far as I know they've only showed the game yesterday and are only due to show the Challenge Cup final aren't they? It would be "fantastic" if they, or indeed anyone else, would actually pick up the rights to the SFL football even just for highlights. Hopefully the Challenge Cup Final will be a cracker of a match and help encourage someone into it.

Lower division highlights would be great, even if just one game. I would defo watch it.

It's a channel set up to cater for a minority audience so showing lower division football should dovetail in perfectly with that. Very little sign of it so far though. Why show the already well covered SPL and ignore the SFL teams? Early days yet though and I'm still hoping it will happen.

I would guess it's down to cost. but with some of the clubs already videoing (is that a word?) games for their own use, some interclub co-operation would reduce that dramatically. hopefully the guys at ALBA can come to some "arrangement" with the member clubs, and edit the footage into a respectable highlights package. over to those and such as those to get together and make it happen.

all duly noted and will do my best to weasle in the ideas and try make them reality. no promises though!

How about getting BBC Alba broadcast on Freeview, Virgin or even on BBC iplayer?